Who is the most successful Chinese AI application company going global in the first half of this year?

The answer is absolutely beyond your imagination! It's not ByteDance, but Zuoyebang, the former online education leader.

At the end of July, market research firm Sensor Tower released the TOP10 downloads of AI products in the US in the first half of this year. Among them, three Chinese companies made the cut: Question.AI (ranked 3rd), Talkie (ranked 4th), and Poly.AI (ranked 9th). Notably, both AI education app Question.AI and AI companion Poly.AI hail from Zuoyebang.

▲Note: Red apps are developed by Chinese companies (Source: Sensor Tower)

As early as the beginning of this year, Poly.AI and Question.AI had already appeared on A16z's "Top 100 Generative AI Consumer Apps."

As Question.AI and Poly.AI continue to perform well, it means that Zuoyebang has emerged as the biggest winner in this wave of Chinese AI companies going global.

In April this year, Zuoyebang was reported to have secretly filed for an IPO in the US. Bloomberg reported that the company was discussing going public with its advisors, with an expected listing as early as this year. In this IPO, Zuoyebang plans to raise less than $100 million through stock issuance.

Will Zuoyebang's leadership in AI applications going global help it gain more favor with investors? We'll just have to wait and see.

/ 01 / Solving school problems, accompanying during holidays – A time management master for American students

First, let's take a look at these two AI products from Zuoyebang with Raven.

Question AI, an AI education product launched in May last year, allows students to solve homework problems by scanning, covering multiple subjects. Poly.AI, on the other hand, is an AI companion product where users can create their own AI characters and chat with them.

According to public information, Poly.AI's overseas entity is "CLOUD WHALE INTERACTIVE TECHNOLOGY LLC."

According to Baijingchuhai, Question AI under Zuoyebang once used "CLOUD WHALE INTERACTIVE TECHNOLOGY LLC" as its overseas entity. (However, the current overseas entity for Question AI is shown as "D3 DIMENSION TECHNOLOGY PTE. LTD.").

It can be basically confirmed that both Poly.AI and Question AI come from Zuoyebang.

Although the product directions are slightly different, both products have shown impressive traffic performance.

Let's start with Question.AI. From February to May this year, Question.AI consistently ranked in the top 3 of the US education charts, second only to Duolingo and ByteDance's Gauth, and even briefly topping the list.

In June and July, affected by the summer vacation, the daily average downloads of Question.AI declined, maintaining a ranking of around 25th. On August 5, the daily downloads were 45,000.

Since its launch in May 2023, Question.AI has accumulated 26.03 million global downloads, with 5.9 million downloads in the US. In terms of user distribution, Question.AI's main active users are in the US, with weekly active users approaching 2 million in the North American market.

Now, let's talk about Poly.AI.

Since its launch in May 2023, Poly.AI has maintained a steady but unspectacular performance. Starting last October, Poly.AI's user growth became significant, with over 100,000 new downloads per month, peaking at 270,000 in December (mainly from developing countries).

Interestingly, as the US entered its summer vacation (June and July), Poly.AI's downloads soared.

In the Apple App Store's entertainment app rankings, Poly.AI's ranking rose from around 60th before the end of May to around 20th. On August 5, the daily downloads were 50,000.

In terms of user distribution, Poly.AI's active users are mainly in the US, Brazil, and Mexico. Currently, Poly.AI has accumulated 4.12 million global downloads, with 800,000 downloads in the US.

/ 02 / The key to growth: Accumulated experience in original products + new market demands

There are two key reasons why Question.AI and Poly.AI have been able to quickly acquire a large user base:

First, Zuoyebang has accumulated experience in homework search products, which, when combined with AI technology, can be replicated in its overseas products.

Second, Zuoyebang is able to capture new market demands and adjust its products to meet these demands.

Next, Raven will elaborate on these two products.

Question.AI: Accumulated experience in homework search products + affordable alternative to American tutors

Domestic users are familiar with homework search apps. At the peak of online education, homework search apps were a crucial battleground for all players, including Zuoyebang.

Question.AI can be seen as a combination of Zuoyebang's original homework search product and AI technology. It has three core functions:

1) Taking a photo of a problem and providing a solution

2) AI homework assistant, providing 24/7 online answers

3) AI chat, uploading multiple PDF files (Chat PDF), automatically scanning and solving multiple problems in the PDF

The first function is essentially a transfer of the homework search product's capabilities, while the latter two incorporate AI technology. In other words, Zuoyebang's experience in homework search apps can be transferred to its AI education products going global.

To understand the differences between Question.AI and other overseas AI homework search apps (ByteDance's Gauth, Answer.AI), Raven conducted a simple comparison. During the trial process of solving a single problem, Raven observed the following dimensions:

1. Speed of reading and responding to the problem: Question.AI was the fastest (taking about 20 seconds), followed by Answer.AI, while Gauth was the slowest (taking about 40 seconds).

2. Experience with reading and recognizing the problem: Question.AI allows direct editing of recognized text in the image (very convenient), Answer.AI allows copying and pasting to modify recognized text (okay), while Gauth does not allow editing of recognized text (inconvenient).

3. Explanation process: Both Question.AI and Answer.AI support extended questions, while Gauth does not.

Why are AI education apps popular in the US? An important reason is that AI homework search apps like Question.AI are cheaper than private tutors.

Tutoring is a non-negligible expense for American families, as tutors are relatively expensive in most parts of the country. For solving homework problems, Question.AI is much cheaper than private tutors.

The hourly rate for a high school tutor (a non-school teacher with some experience) in the US ranges from $50 to $100, while Question.AI's annual membership fee is $58.8. If we calculate based on a tutoring fee of $60 per hour, this is equivalent to approximately one year's subscription fee for Question.AI.

Poly.AI: Accurately capturing students' companionship needs + unlimited chat + IP + marketing

Poly.AI's inclusion in A16z's ranking of Top 50 mobile AI apps by MAU (as of January this year) is inseparable from its flexible product roadmap.

Since its inception, Poly.AI has undergone multiple iterations, with significant changes to its positioning.

When Poly.AI was first launched in May last year, it was positioned as a language learning app. Just a month later, Poly.AI transformed into an AI companion. In June last year, it updated the role-speaking function and removed descriptions related to language learning.

After three months of exploration, Poly.AI finally found its footing as an AI companion. After a redesign on October 27 last year, Poly.AI not only changed its name but also clarified its product features in its description:

1) Realistic voice simulation

2) Popular IP characters and entertainment celebrities

▲The art style of the consecutively updated versions changed dramatically, with the former featuring Greek mythology characters and the latter adding Japanese anime characters and Korean idols

After clarifying its product features, Poly.AI invested heavily in TikTok marketing, collaborating with anime bloggers and KOLs to create buzz around its product through humorous content related to "voices."

Following the product positioning update and "hot" marketing campaigns, Poly.AI focused on the AI companion's traffic killer – unlimited chat (no filters). This means users can freely chat with Poly.AI about adult content, horror topics, and more without being censored.

This helped Poly.AI attract a segment of users who were not satisfied with Character.AI. Many users have earnestly written about their reasons for recommending Poly.AI on Reddit:

Poly.AI offers more flexible role creation, topic scenarios, and better role consistency.

▲Poly.AI received rave reviews on Reddit

Overall, while Zuoyebang's two products have achieved phased successes, there is still a long way to go.

Nowadays, the competition in the AI education field is becoming increasingly fierce, and Question.AI also faces challenges from ByteDance's Gauth. For Poly.AI, the future of the AI companion product segment is uncertain as the leading player, Character.AI, has disbanded.

These questions require Zuoyebang to provide answers in its future development.

Article by Lang Lang